Community Holds Blood Drive Following Aurora Shooting

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A blood drive was held Monday in Lombard to honor the five police officers wounded in last month’s deadly shooting spree at the Henry Pratt Company plant in Aurora.

Eva Quinley of Vitalant, which organized the blood drive, said the donors also paid tribute to a sixth police officer who was injured, as well as all the emergency workers who responded to the shootings.

Quinley said tragedies such as the Aurora shooting are the times many people are reminded of the need to donate blood.

"It's for all sorts of reasons. We always think it's for accidents and tragedies, but there are surgeries, there are people who need blood just to live each week. We have sickle cell patients who get transfused every other week," she said.

Five people were killed in the Feb. 15 shooting spree, before the gunman died in a shootout with police.